Amphibians
' Amphibians' are the most basal of the world's tetrapods - four-legged vertebrate animals that have to exist in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Existing since the Devonian time period (when the amphibians began to emerge onto land and even dig crude burrows to escape the heat of the sun), their closest relatives potentially are lungfish of Africa, Australia and South America, whose fry closely resemble the larvae of some amphibians (and vice versa). Most amphibians have four legs, but some have only two, while the caecilians got rid of legs altogether. Many amphibians (especially those living in the tropics) are endangered. Impossible Pictures has shown the following amphibian species: '- Hynerpeton:' one of the very first, earliest amphibians of the Devonian (Walking with monsters, ep 1). It was shown hunting small invertebrates like scorpions, and being food for large creatures, such as the huge lobe-finned fish Hyneria and fresh-water sharks. '- Proterogyrinus: '''a later amphibian that lived during the Carboniferous (Walking with monsters, ep 2). It was shown hunting such creatures as arthropleura and meganeura, but it was mainly used by the show as a general stand-in for all of the Carboniferous amphibians. It played a secondary, or even a tertiary role in the episode's narration, and it died out when the reptiles evolved by the early Permian time period. '- Crassigyrinus: another amphibian of the Carboniferous time period (Prehistoric park, ep 5). Nigel Marvin and his crew had encountered this large aquatic amphibian when they were hunting Carboniferous invertebrates, such as the meganeura and the arthropleura, and had temporarily captured it, but had to release it, as they could not hold onto this purely aquatic creature for any prolonged period of time. Unlike Proterogyrinus, who could leave water for long periods of time (almost like a crocodile), Crassigyrinus appeared to be wholy aquatic and unable even to move on land with its tiny limbs. '''- Seymouria: an amphibian from the early Permian (Walking with monsters, ep 2). It was a secondary character of that episode, harassing a Dimetrodon's nest, but eventually killed by another Dimetrodon. Seymouria served as an example as to how amphibians got overshadowed by the reptiles on land quite quickly: crocodile-like Proterogyrinus and much-smaller Seymoria are shown almost side-by-side with their reptilian neighbours, Petrolacosaurus and the pelycosaurs of early Permian, and clearly illustrate the descent of amphibians from the dominant evolutionary roles. '- Labyrinthodont (Rhinesuchus): '''an amphibian from the late Permian (Walking with monsters, ep 3). It was a 'living fossil' of sorts, a remnant of the earlier, Carboniferous time that was stalked and eventually killed and eaten by a gorgonopsid - a mammal-like reptile (therapsid). Unlike earlier amphibians, Rhinesuchus could hibernate in a torpid state by coccooning deep under a layer of mud, but it died out during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction all the same. '- Koolasuchus: '''an amphibian from the middle to late Cretaceous (Walking with dinosaurs, ep 5). It was another 'living fossil', a remnant of the past that lived in Cretaceous Australia/New Zealand in an ecological niche similar to crocodilians - reptiles that had evolved by that time. It resembled a giant salamander in size and was an aquatic predator behavior-wise: it harassed dinosaur young, but was more successful as a scavenger instead. Like Rhinesuchus before it, it too could hibernate, by burying itself under mud, and like Rhinesuchus, it died out before its' dinosaur neighbours and contemporaries did. Category:Walking with Dinosaurs Animals Category:Walking with Monsters Animals Category:Prehistoric park Category:Meat eating animals amphibions